Japan-India Relations

Japan-India Summit Meeting

On September 5, commencing at 10:35 a.m. for approximately 45 minutes, Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, on his visit to Vladivostok, Russian Federation to attend the Eastern Economic Forum, held a Summit meeting with H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. The overview of the meeting is as follows.

At the beginning, Prime Minister Abe welcomed his reunion with Prime Minister Modi, following the G20 Osaka Summit and the G7 Summit in Biarritz, and conveyed his birthday (September 17) wishes to Prime Minister Modi.Prime Minister Modi expressed pleasure that the Minister for Defence of India recently visited Japan and held the Japan-India Defence Ministerial Meeting, where he exchanged views with his Japanese counterpart on development of defence and strategic relations. Prime Minister Modi showed his willingness to advance the Japan-India relationship together with Prime Minister Abe, whose birthday is also in September. In addition, Prime Minister Modi stated that the two countries were moving toward an agreement on the Japan-India Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA), and that India was ready to hold the “2+2” Ministerial Meeting prior to Prime Minister Abe’s visit to India.

The two leaders agreed to accelerate the pace of preparation toward Prime Minister Abe’s next visit to India.Prime Minister Abe expressed his intent to further broaden Japan-India relations through the “2+2” Ministerial Meeting to be held as early as possible, defence cooperation including one among the armed forces, and by making concrete progress in such areas as cyber, IT, food processing, health and medicine, high-speed railway project, and people-to-people exchanges.Prime Minister Modi expressed his intention to take concrete steps to cooperate toward the realization of common vision of the Indo-Pacific and in such areas as security, digital, and cooperation in third countries.

The two leaders discussed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), regional affairs, and global issues. Prime Minister Modi explained the situation in Kashmir. In return, Prime Minister Abe underlined the need for concerned parties to exercise self-restraint in order to avoid escalation of tensions, and expressed his hope for a peaceful resolution through dialogue.